by KaiserJeep » Wed 29 Aug 2018, 12:34:41
I think the whole premise that peak oil and climate change will force culture to change is silly. The means of restricting consumption and ensuring fair distribution of limited supplies of anything is built into the free marketplace. If gasoline or diesel passes $10/gallon, we won't consume as much, and even less when it passes $20/gallon. If it costs you $1000/month to heat your home, you will move into the basement which can be heated for $200/month. If electricity is $1/kWh, you will consume less electricity.
Those at the top of the income ladder will not care. Those at the bottom will require more government assistance than they presently do. The Middle Class will adapt, and continue to shrink.
Expensive energy magnifies the difference between affluence and poverty, making everything cost more. But we will react by painfully adapting every aspect of our infrastructure to use less energy. I have said more than once that we possess the technology to have lifestyles comparable to today while consuming 1/6th the energy. I do believe that.
There is NOTHING about hardship that need result in additional powers of government. The US Culture did not change as a result of WW2, for example - after years of hardship, American life resumed with a vengence. The US Constitution forbids the government from giving itself more power over people. The document is not going away.
KaiserJeep 2.0, Neural Subnode 0010 0000 0001 0110 - 1001 0011 0011, Tertiary Adjunct to Unimatrix 0000 0000 0001
Resistance is Futile, YOU will be Assimilated.
Warning: Messages timestamped before April 1, 2016, 06:00 PST were posted by the unmodified human KaiserJeep 1.0